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On behalf of The Elder and Disability Law Firm, APC on Thursday, January 29, 2015. When you sit down to discuss your estate with an estate planning lawyer you should be prepared to share all of the relevant details. If you leave out anything important your estate can wind up being quite tangled after you pass away, and the primary purpose behind making preparations is to enable smooth asset transfers when the appropriate time arrives.Your attorney may ask certain sensitive question...

On behalf of The Elder and Disability Law Firm, APC on Friday, January 23, 2015. Estate planning and retirement planning are naturally connected. If you have particular ideas in mind with regard to what you want to be able to do for your family after you pass away these intentions could impact your retirement budget. Clearly, you can't provide inheritances if there is nothing left after you pass away.Unfortunately a great many Americans are finding themselves in just that position....

On behalf of The Elder and Disability Law Firm, APC on Wednesday, January 14, 2015. Alzheimer's disease is more common than a lot of people may think. The Alzheimer's Association does a lot of great work with regard to research and education, and they tell us that somewhere in the vicinity of 40% of the oldest old are suffering from this disease.The term "oldest old" refers to people who are at least 85 years of age. Believe it or not, this is the fastest growing age group in the U...

On behalf of The Elder and Disability Law Firm, APC on Monday, January 5, 2015. Acute intoxication was listed as the cause of death when the artist Thomas Kinkade passed away recently at the age of 54. Kinkade was very successful financially and it is estimated that the value of his estate when he died was somewhere in the vicinity of $65 million.There are times when celebrities pass away without executing a proper estate plan and these cases can sometimes be instructive as you see...

On behalf of The Elder and Disability Law Firm, APC on Monday, November 10, 2014. As you are weighing your options with regard to estate planning vehicles you would do well to consider the advantages of revocable living trusts.Some people don't feel as though a trust would be right for them because they are not wealthy. The truth is that living trusts can be a good solution for people of ordinary means. You should not simply dismiss the possibility of creating such a trust because ...

On behalf of The Elder and Disability Law Firm, APC on Tuesday, November 4, 2014. When you are a young child you invariably look forward to Christmas and your birthday because you know that you will be receiving gifts. Giving someone a gift seems like a very innocent and kind gesture, and the last thing that you are probably thinking about when you consider doing something nice for someone is taxation.However, most gifts that you give are taxable. Yes, this is true even though you ...

On behalf of The Elder and Disability Law Firm, APC on Tuesday, October 7, 2014. People sometimes make estate planning mistakes that result in truly devastating consequences. With this in mind you would do well to take pause before starting a joint bank account and relying on your co-account holder to distribute your resources to your various heirs after you pass away.This can seem to some like a reasonably logical idea but there are some very good reasons to the eschew this notion...

On behalf of The Elder and Disability Law Firm, APC on Friday, October 3, 2014. If you are in a position to simply go about your business with no financial constraints during retirement you are in a fantastic position, but it is in fact a minority position. Most people are going to have to plan ahead carefully to be able to have the resources necessary to finance a reasonably comfortable retirement.Making sure that you have adequate savings and a suitable income stream will certain...

On behalf of The Elder and Disability Law Firm, APC on Tuesday, September 30, 2014. The estate plan that you originally put into place is going to be based on a snapshot, but life itself is more akin to an ongoing motion picture. As a result you would do well to look at estate planning as an ongoing process that will involve revisions along the way.Some events that people typically experience logically trigger the need for estate plan updates. You know it's time to call your estate...

On behalf of The Elder and Disability Law Firm, APC on Thursday, September 25, 2014. Blended families have become quite typical during our current era, and estate planning for blended families requires certain steps if you want to make sure that everyone's interests are served.When you decide to remarry as a person with children you would do well to discuss the legal implications with a good San Bernardino estate planning lawyer before you take the final step. While nobody expects ...